QuickBase and Workato Partnership Takes Citizen Development to Prime Time

A citizen developer is both a creator and an user of technology. According to Gartner’s IT glossary a citizen developer is “a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using … environments sanctioned by corporate IT.” In other words, you don’t need to know how to code to create a business application that is useful and enduring for others, and that is a pretty great power.

This Citizen Developer movement is accelerating. According to Mark Driver at Gartner, by 2020, at least 70% of large enterprises will have established successful citizen development policies, up from 20% in 2010, which is a significant shift in how applications are currently being built. The users of tools like QuickBase, where you can build applications with low code or no code, and Workato, enabling you to integrate applications with no code, are ahead of the curve and the apps and workflows they are creating help shape the way citizen development will work for years to come.

QuickBase Empowers Citizen Developers to Build Apps and Collaborate with IT

QuickBase customers have long been an innovative bunch. They are crafting all kinds of applications – from project management and customer relationship management (CRM), to order tracking, fulfillment management, and asset tracking, to customer service management and you name it – even though they are not programmers. QuickBase is flexible, allowing anyone to build the apps they need in the cloud without any code.

Unlike other application development platforms, QuickBase is purpose-built for citizen developers. Using the platform, those who are closest to the business process and problem gain the freedom to build and customize new apps without necessarily adding to the backlog of IT projects. By inviting the business user in the development process, QuickBase makes it easier for business and IT to collaborate closely so they can build the apps exactly as needed to meet business objectives. Companies have the flexibility to define this collaboration as IT-led or business-led and anywhere in between on this spectrum. In other words, each organization can choose the roles business and IT play in prototyping, deploying, managing, and updating applications.

Workato Lets Citizen Developers Automate and Integrate to the Fullest

With QuickBase Sync, QuickBase offers an automated one way data import capability. However, Citizen Developers have begun demanding more sophisticated automation and integration tools. They want to move data in both directions between their cloud apps. They want to take conditional actions based on data being created or changing. They want to do this in real time and without any coding knowledge.

Like QuickBase, Workato is determined to make application integration and automation more accessible for non-programmers. The brainchild of integration veterans from Tibco and Oracle who went on to lead cloud app platforms and consumer oriented products, Workato is the answer to the realization that existing integration tools were stuck in the past. That’s why Workato offers an enterprise grade integration and automation platform in the cloud with the same ease of use that IFTTT offers to consumers.

So what does “enterprise grade” really mean and why is this important for citizen developers? Workato can do things that other cloud integrators simply cannot: conditional branching, looping, complex formulas to map data, long running, human workflows, and integration with SAP and SQL Server on premises, to name a few. Workato isn’t joking when it says it is just as powerful as Tibco, but all of these capabilities start at just $100 per month with the ability to reuse thousands of integrations already created by the community. Giving citizen developers the tools to do truly powerful things and develop robust integration solutions for others is the future of the business landscape.

Organizations who don’t have the time, resources, or desire to build integrations in house, can choose to work with expert QuickBase solution providers. Workato provides solution providers with a complete platform to implement and manage agile and powerful integration solutions at a reasonable price.

The QuickBase Workato Partnership: A Driving Force in the Citizen Developer Movement

QuickBase is investing in improving its workflow automation capabilities with a brand new webhooks feature enabling real-time integration between apps. To further enhance its automation and integration capabilities, QuickBase also partnered with Workato so citizen developers have an advanced set of tools to integrate and automate their QuickBase apps. The results are astounding. A joint customer, Curadeuda, is using Workato to combine QuickBase with Mailchimp and Unbounce to automate its marketing process. Co-Director Daniel Carvallo explains: “Workato’s automation recipes help me multiply the value of QuickBase. Now, I can create a multi-app solution and mimic much more costly systems that are out of reach for us.” He also automates customer communication with Workato and Twilio based on trigger events in QuickBase.

With QuickBase and Workato, there are so many possibilities. For example, creating a sophisticated Net Promoter Score (NPS) system is as easy as adding Workato workflows with SurveyMonkey to QuickBase. And Workato even integrates with the highly popular Slack chat platform to empower users to converse with QuickBase and other apps. How cool is that?

Thanks to QuickBase, Citizen developers can build all kinds of apps and import data without any code. Now, with the addition of Workato, they can go even further and add automation workflows, integrate in real time and both ways with other systems and even compose multi-apps solutions. QuickBase and Workato together establish an entirely unprecedented level of flexibility and citizen access to build and iterate on business systems. Welcome to a brave and exciting new world where citizens are united to build and automate.

Interested? As part of the partnership, Workato is offering QuickBase Premier customers two exclusive Pro pricing plans at $99/month and $249/month compared to the regular $499/month Workato Pro plan. Both plans support real-time integration via the new QuickBase Webhooks feature, currently available in Early Access and going into general availability in the second half of the year. Check out www.workato.com/QuickBase to find out more or listen to our on-demand webinar.

Mark Field
Mark leads integrations product management for QuickBase, Inc. Mark’s team works seamlessly with customers, partners, engineering and experience design to expand QuickBase with features that enable customers to solve new problems with QuickBase. Prior to Intuit, Mark has held numerous roles in software product management, sales engineering & IT at companies like PTC, Allaire (now Adobe), IBM, Lotus Development & Travelers Insurance.

Markus Zirn
Markus is the VP of Business Development at Workato, an award-winning cloud automation and integration platform with enterprise-grade capabilities – with no coding required. He works with ISV partners, consultants, and enterprise customers to ensure Workato matches their integration and automation needs. Prior to Workato, Markus led Product Management and Solutions at Splunk, and also headed Product Management at Oracle for integration, business processes and event management.